The senate Budget and Appropriations Committee approved the release of some economic stimulus bills, part of a 30-bill packet fast-tracked by the Democratic majority as a foil to Gov. Chris Christie’s municipal toolkit. (Carroll, PolitickerNJ)

Lawmakers, fractured along party lines in the Assembly but acting more harmoniously in the Senate, began advancing the first wave in a package of bills designed to help create jobs in New Jersey Wednesday. (Symons, Daily Record)

Good news for citizens of New York and New Jersey: we rank among the most financially adept people in the U.S., according to a survey of more than 28,000 people released Wednesday. (Staff, The Wall Street Journal)

Property tax bills that pump $25 billion into the coffers of school districts and local government create an economic hardship for two of every three New Jersey residents, a recent poll found. (Schnaars, Asbury Park Press)

The New Jersey Schools Development Authority (SDA) has provided the first glimpse of what it will look like next year, as it both reinvents itself and restarts court-ordered school construction projects in some of the state’s neediest cities. (Mooney, NJ Spotlight)

State moves to block PSE&G from profiting from federal rates incentives

The state is trying to prevent Public Service Electric & Gas (PSE&G) from securing special incentives from the federal government, which critics say would boost the utility’s earnings on more than $1.6 billion worth of transmission projects. (Johnson, NJ Spotlight)

Despite its uncertain future, the New Jersey Public Broadcasting Authority approved two new long-term lease agreements today, then reiterated its hope that the future operators of New Jersey Network be based in the state. (McGlone, The Star-Ledger)

Whelan helps strike deal on Atlantic City tourism district that protects police autonomy

A day after the chief sponsor of a Democratic bill to create a tourism district in Atlantic City pulled his support, party leaders settled their disagreements and struck a deal. (Clark, Press of Atlantic City)

The Oyster Creek nuclear reactor in New Jersey will be shut down by 2019, at least 10 years before its license expires, in a deal with state environmental regulators that will allow it to operate until then without building costly cooling towers, its owner said on Wednesday. (Wald, The New York Times)

State Senate panel has last chance Thursday to create registry and avoid federal fishing fee

A state Senate committee will get its last chance Thursday to establish a saltwater fishing registry and thus avoid a federal fishing fee of $15 per angler starting Jan. 1. (Degener, Press of Atlantic City)

The Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee will meet at 1 p.m. tomorrow to begin consideration of the “Back to Work NJ” job creation and economic development initiative, according to the Senate Majority Office. (Staff, PolitickerNJ)

It’s all coming back to me now. In my younger days, people used to call really potent marijuana “kind bud.” And the stuff that someone bought quickly on a lark was simply known as “commercial weed” or “schwag.” In the debate over marijuana potency in New Jersey “schwag” has also been referred to as “dirt weed.” (Fink, NJN)

It took only a day for Gov. Christie to catch up to those of us who laughed out loud at the NJEA’s idea of teacher tenure reform. He said the only change the NJEA was making to tenure reform was having an arbitrator decide if a teacher should be dismissed instead of a judge. (Ingle, Asbury Park Press)

In 2000, PoliticsNJ.com (now PolitickerNJ.com) entered the political stage, changing how New Jersey’s power elite received its daily political fix. Starting in January 2011, we’re shaking up Trenton once again. Stay tuned for State Street Wire.